With the wife being out for the night; I figured I’d fire up Netflix and find a good thriller with satisfying explosions and gratuitous death scenes. What I found in Buried was something quite different.
The movie opens with Ryan Reynolds, who stars as Paul Conroy, groggily waking up trapped within a coffin and buried in the Iraqi desert. We later discover than an IED and small arms attack on Reynolds’ supply convoy has placed him in this place of peril. With only a lighter, Blackberry, and a few other supplies; he finds himself in a race against time to find a way out of his claustrophobic nightmare.
I wouldn’t classify Ryan Reynolds as a gritty, expressive actor; however, I was pleasantly surprised with his believable emotions throughout Buried. From the moment he awakens in his desert tomb, Reynolds demonstrates his ability to showcase a litany of real emotions. Unfortunately, his character’s inability to calm down and try to save himself, as well as a couple throwaway movie gimmicks (a snake in the coffin…seriously?) overshadow these abilities at times.
Overall, I would say that I was impressed with Buried, mostly for Reynolds’ ability to lead a one man show, one stage show using nothing but emotion and a quickly dying Blackberry. Did I get to see our hero riding a tank into an enemy compound while waving the American flag and fighting off the (name your time period) bad guys by himself…No. I did, however, get to see a cool cinematic idea put into very satisfying action.
3.5/5
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